They Made it Their Own
by APat96
Summary: After some time together, an older Percy looks back on important times he and Annabeth shared together. Surprise ending! R R, please!
1. Chapter 1

As he sat there in the waiting room of the hospital, he recalled all that they had been through, the distances they had come, together. Memories flooded him, and a small smile played across his weathered lips. Sure, they had married young, but that's just what happens when you're in love.

_Flashback_

_They sat in the Green Pine Diner, their favorite, eating their usual. Him, a plate of scrambled eggs and toast with a side of strawberry jam, and her, a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of fruit salad. Sitting in their usual booth, they watched the snow fall gently on the New York streets while sitting in comfortable silence. Suddenly, she spoke; "You know, everybody's been asking me when we're gonna get married." He choked on his eggs before swallowing them and taking a deep breath. They had been dating since they were sixteen, and now they were twenty five. It only made sense that she would ask the inevitable, but if only she didn't have to catch him off guard like that. She narrowed her eyes and stared quizzically at him, in a way only a child of Athena could. He cleared his throat. "Well, not that it's any of their business, and I was waiting until our anniversary to do this, but..." When he pulled the small, black velvet box out of his coat pocket, her face lit up, and when he slid the box across the table for her to open it, the grin on her face warmed his heart to an inferno. She slid the ring onto her finger and they jumped up simultaneously, meeting in the aisle for a warm embrace. It was made official by this unconventional proposal; Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase were getting married._

_End Flashback_

He looked down at his wedding ring lovingly, turned the fragile gold band to read what she had written. _''To my seaweed brain, forever and for always". _He had inscribed something equally as gushy on her band, and they had laughed about it for years. But he meant it. The words he had used were cliché for a reason; _they worked_! It had always seemed that they only way to describe his love was with those gushy words, words sweet enough to cause cavities. Fortunately, those words were the only conventional thing about the wedding. As abnormal as they proposal had been; the wedding was ten times more so.

_Flashback_

_They stood on a makeshift platform in the middle of the strawberry fields at Camp Half Blood, under a tent of cream colored canvas. A hot day in June, they could see the sun shining brightly through the camp, almost as much as they could sense the sweet smell of strawberries lingering in the air. Annabeth wore a dress of the lightest sea green jersey, and Percy wore chinos and a polo a few shades darker. The service itself was short, all the better for the many ADHD minds in attendance, but the words that were said, however concise, were enough to make one's heart soar. The Vows were no different. They each had narrowed down their feelings into one short paragraph, and the effect couldn't have been any more charming. The party was the opposite of the service, raging on into the early morning, and the new husband and wife shared their first dance together to the tune of Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World'. When the first sunlight hit, they drove off together in an open car, off to their honeymoon in Greece, which couldn't have been any nicer. The couple spent two weeks scuba diving in the turquoise waters, climbing the rocky cliffs, and visiting all the ancient places their parents had been idols in. The trip screamed of adventure, romance, and curiosity; a perfect mixture of the two young demigod minds. When it came time to return, a trip they did by boat, the two had fallen for each other all over again. _


	2. Chapter 2

He sighed with fondness for this memory, recalling the sound of Annabeth's laughter escaping her heart shaped mouth as he twirled her on the dance floor. But as soon as this happy memory passed, another, more somber one, filled its place. He remembered her not feeling well; every wave of pain was a blow to his heart. Her face, when the doctors gave her the new, was enough to bring him to tears. Instantly, he was brought back to the day it all started.

_Flashback_

_It was a few months after their honeymoon, and the couple was still giddy with post marital joy. They were lying in bed in the bedroom of their New York flat, listening to the rain fall, and watching a Discovery channel program, courtesy of Annabeth. Suddenly, she was seized by a sharp pain in her abdomen, doubling her over and bringing tears to her eyes. "Honey, are you all right?" He asked, concerned. She quickly muttered the word "yes" and gave a probable excuse of bad Chinese food from the night before. But the pain didn't subside, lasting for a day and a half before he forced her into a cab with the intention of taking her to the hospital. She remained curled up the entire ride there, her head resting against his shoulder as he stroked her back and offered words of condolence. Once at the hospital, they were forced to wait the length of three hours before even being seen, her pain only increasing with every passing minute. By the time a doctor had come around, she was vomiting blood and the pain had come to the point where she was openly weeping. The doctors immediately took several scans of her, eventually finding a large mass in her abdomen, and finally deciding on what medicines to put her on to stop the vomiting and decrease the pain. She rested in her room, bound to an IV for dehydration, with the pain virtually gone. He waited patiently by her side, stroking her hair and adjusting her pillows, every bit the doting husband. She drifted in and out of sleep, while he remained wide awake in fear of the future. She was sent for a biopsy for the mass, and he waited for her. She returned to the room after about an hour, still asleep, but now with a bandage around her lower torso. After some time, a new doctor entered the room, announcing herself as an oncologist by the name of Samantha Byrd. _

"_Oncology, as in cancer?" Annabeth asked, now wide awake. _

"_Unfortunately, yes." Dr. Byrd replied._

"_So you're saying that she has cancer?" He asked, a lone tear tracing the length of his face._

"_Well, the results of your biopsy came back positive for cancer, so I'm here to walk you through everything and give you your options." The doctor answered calmly._

_The mass, which was actually ovarian cancer, was large and had several blood vessels and arteries running through it, which would make it nearly impossible to remove in surgery, the doctor reasoned. She suggested that chemotherapy would be their best option, in which case it would have to be started immediately, as the tumor was fast progressing. Dr. Byrd left several minutes later, leaving the two to consider their options. They cried for many reasons; their chances of having a child would be slim either way, she would lose her beautiful golden hair and become sickly, and, most importantly, __**she could die**__._


	3. Chapter 3

A subtle frown crossed his face as he remembered the pain he had felt at that time. The pain that he still felt. Pain so deep that it could only be overshadowed by love and devotion. As he pondered, his heart felt an overload of emotions. Love, sadness, fear, even some emotions that did not have names. Sometimes you just can't put a name on your heart. This memory brought many more flooding back, specifically of chemo. Weeks and weeks of something that was supposed to be making her better. In reality, it had appeared to only be making her worse.

_Flashback_

_He held the basin under her chin as she lost her stomach contents once more, due to her treatment. Her hair was long gone, and now she wore a scarf on her bare head. She had taken a razor to her scalp when she saw her locks coming out by the handful, and now wore her favorite scarf, the cream one with gray owls on it. _

"_Thanks" She whispered after she had finished._

"_No problem." He said, kissing her forehead._

_Soon a nurse came by to remove the lines, and Annabeth was free to go. He brought her out by wheelchair and lifted her weakened frame into the car. Getting in himself, he started the car and began the drive home, as he did every Wednesday for her treatments. She suddenly broke the silence;_

"_Do you think we'll ever have kids, Percy?" She asked, sighing._

"_Well, the doctor said our chances are slim. You know, depending...on the future."_

"_You mean depending on whether I live or not."_

"_Come on, don't talk like that. You're gonna go through chemo and get better, and everything will be fine!" He said, more trying to convince himself than her._

"_Whatever" She sighed and turned to look out the window, trying not to let him see the tears dripping down her face._

"_Hey, come on, things __**are**__ going to get better," he pronounced defiantly, rubbing a stray tear off her face._

"_It has to" he muttered to himself._

_Three weeks later_

_Things had begun to look up. Annabeth was still in chemo, but she was handling it a lot better and had even gone back to work at the architecture firm. Sure, there were still some off days filled with sickness and tears, but there were also days of laughs and smiles to balance them out. They were sitting at home one night, watching tv while eating Percy's attempt at lasagna, when Annabeth said:_

"_You know, I haven't forgotten about that conversation we had a while back."_

"_What conversation?"_

"_You know, about...babies."_

"_Oh, uh, that one."_

"_Yeah. You know, i am finishing up my chemo soon, and depending on how it looks then, I can ask about it."_

"_Well, we don't want to rush into things. I mean, you're just starting to feel better..."_

"_Yeah, but i always, i don't know, pictured myself as a mom." she said quietly._

_He sighed, realizing that, when a child of Athena told you she had always pictured something, she wasn't going to give up that easily._

"_If you're really that set on it, I can't stop you from asking during your next appointment."_

_She gave him a satisfied smirk and grasped his face in her hands, kissing him._

"_So it's set then."_


	4. Chapter 4

He smiled, flipping the gold band in his fingers once more, as he remembered the day she went into remission. They celebrated with her favorite Chinese food, courtesy of Mandarin Cuisine, and a rented movie, and began to think more seriously about children.

_Flashback_

"_I just don't see why it has to __**now**_!" _he said, frustrated. "You're just in remission, we're not even completely out of the woods yet!"_

"_Percy." She begged, looking up at him with those big, gray eyes. "Please, I __**need**__ to do this now! Don't you want kids?"_

"_Of course I do!" He exclaimed, running his fingers through his hair. "It's just that—I…almost lost you." He whispered, voice cracking. "That's not going to happen again."_

"_No. I won't let you be alone." She said, rising from the couch and grabbing his hand._

_ With their fingers intertwined, they shared a passionate embrace, neither one wishing to let go of the other._

He smiled once more, chuckling to himself as he remembered all the passionate times they had spent in the bedroom, trying for that baby. Then, the day she had snuck the positive pregnancy test into his lunch bag. Oh, he was so grossed out, having a used pee stick in with his turkey sandwich, but also ecstatic to become a father. He had immediately called Annabeth, and the two exchanged a tearful moment over the phone. That night, they celebrated with a classic movie marathon and some sparkling apple cider. They were thrilled.

His eyebrows furrowed as he recalled the repeated pain of losing the baby, and two more following it. They had almost given up when Annabeth got pregnant once more. "Too stubborn," he called it, jokingly; "fate" she said, in all sincerity.

He had dealt with all her mood swings and cravings in stride, but, as a demigod, there were some strange requests. He recalled leaving the house once, at one in the morning to retrieve some fried twinkies with tartar sauce for her. He gagged remembering her scarf them down and ask for more. He also remembered the frequent visits to Mandarin Cuisine. She loved the food there more than anything. Louis, the waiter, had even gotten to know them by name. Percy chuckled, remembering all the sympathy weight he had put on.

He smiled, albeit the smile was tinged with sadness, as he remembered all that had happened in their short life together. The childless years that ticked by slowly; the sickness years that seemed immortal; but still the happier years, when life was easy and they had their lives ahead of them.

"_Not anymore."_ He thought, with a sigh. "_It's never gonna be the same."_

Suddenly, a weary nurse called for him, saying that it was urgent he come quickly. He bolted from the waiting room, sprinting down the hospital corridor to room 7522, out of breath. His eyes searched the room madly, looking for any sign that anything had happened.

Instead, he saw his wife, Annabeth, and their newborn son, just as he had left them.

"Wh-what's going on?" He asked. "The nurse said it was urgent!"

"It is, seaweed brain! I woke up—gods, I must've been so tired—and they said you had gone for a walk so I could sleep. Well, when I woke up, I realized we still have to name the baby!" She replied animatedly.

"She put up quite the fuss." Confirmed the nurse.

Percy walked over to the basinet holding his new son, and smiled down at the sleeping infant. The baby squirmed in its sleep and the new father grinned, turning back to Annabeth.

"How about 'Robert Louis'?" He asked.

"Hmm…Robert Louis Jackson….It sounds nice! Just like Robert Louis Stevenson, the writer!"

"Well, I was thinking more Robert Kennedy. You know, his ancestors came from a couple generations of Athena, like you. Louis, well, for our favorite waiter over at Mandarin Cuisine. We're there so much, it's like they're family!" He explained. "But, you know, I guess he could be named for all three."

Annabeth smiled at this, repeating the name a few times. She reached out towards the newborn's crib, and Percy carefully lifted the infant out and placed him in her arms. He began to stir, peacefully.

"Robert Louis Jackson, welcome to our world!" She whispered, smiling. Percy looked on, proud, with an arm around his wife and a hand softly caressing his son's face.

The baby's eyes opened at this, revealing eyes that could only be described as grayish green, and the couple exchanged a grin, one that could only be so cliché that it worked perfectly for this very moment. Just like their life together; they had made this child unique, and perfect in his own way; they had made him their own.


End file.
